Don't get discouraged. On the bright side, you haven't GAINED any weight which you probably would have without your band. Now, you probably just need to switch things up. What are you eating? Are you sticking to a specific diet or just trying to 'not eat bad stuff'? It's easy to get conflicting dieting advice. Some people will say do low carb while others will say low fat and then other people will say just eat the same food but less. It can be problematic if you're trying to follow all the advice at once. First of all, you need to have good restriction...NOT TOO MUCH restriction but GOOD restriction. I judge this as being restricted enough that I cannot eat a cheeseburger with the bun. Once you are at that restriction find a diet that works for you. Personally I do well with Atkins, south beach, or mediterranean because it's easier to cut out bread rice and Pasta with the band. Also, follow the band rules like not eating with your meals. If you are just surviving on Cereal and ice cream you are not going to lose weight. Knowing what you are currently eating would definitely help. Anyway, those are just a few tips and I definitely encourage you to keep on trucking! Who knows, getting another surgery may be the way to go but you've already got the lap band so you might as well try to get the most out of it while you can! Good luck!
I have trouble with bread, but if I do it right, very small bites, very slowly, I can manage. I can't eat corn, or the skin of a potato. The very worst, I can't eat clams, one of my favorite things ever, at all!!!! No dry meat at all. I have finally learned, when trying something new, if I can't get it chewed up to the consistency of applesauce, I don't swallow it!
I am so glad you posted this because I think so many of us struggle with the same issues. When I made the decision to get the Band I was so worried about what others thought. Truth is, is doesn't matter what anyone else says or thinks; this is your decision you are making for yourself. It is not one any of us take lightly. Those who love and care for you will accept you without pushing their opinions. I was banded in March and have found that my family accepts it much more now that they understand it. A lot of people don't understand WLS and push their fears onto you as their "concerns. " I am almost 3 months out, have lost 56 LBS (60 percent of my excess body weight), and feel better than I have in years! This is the best decision I've ever made for myself and I hope yours is to. Congrats on going through with your decision and good luck!
I can honestly say I have never regretted my decision to get the lapband. I was (am) fortunate to be surrounded by supportive people who have been positive every step of the way. The most negative has been my mom, and she only nagged when I regained part of the weight - but was never negative about the band.
To be honest, one of my biggest inspirations has been a "failure story." I learned about the band when a friend's daughter was going through the process to get it. She had to self-pay and re-financed her house to get the money. She lost 50 pounds on the pre-op diet, and during that time, I decided to do it too. I cashed in my 401k to self-pay for the surgery. Then, after she got the band, my friend's daughter didn't lose another pound. She continued to defeat the band and eventually re-gained the 50 pounds, plus some. I recently saw a picture of her and thought - that's where I'm headed if I keep going this way.
I never want to take the band for granted and waste it. I am a psychologist and often work with addictions. People are constantly amazed that someone would choose their drug over their family and throw away everything they have - job, home, kids. If I don't deliberately use the band, I am choosing my drug (food) over everything I worked so hard to gain(lose).
I know that the band is not magical and some people have complications. Just follow the rules and confirm for yourself why you made the decision in the first place. Change doesn't happen until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. The pain of staying like you were must have been pretty bad to make it worth what you have been through to get the band (at least it was for me). Hang on to that. If you forget the reason you decided to do it in the first place, you'll get discouraged and give up. When you get ready to cry - repeat the mantra "I did this for a reason!" and remind yourself what that reason was. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm preaching to myself here as much as to anyone else!)
Right now your body is probably still in shock and is out of whack. Your brain is part of your body, so it makes sense that your emotions are out of whack, too. Plus, most of us who need bariatric surgery in the first place have some emotional connections to food. If eating has been a primary means of coping with stress, you are likely to feel quite lost when you go through something as stressful as surgery that completely takes away your primary coping skill.
OK - I'll stop lecturing now. Combine my "therapist self" with my "lapband self" and I tend to get a little preachy. Hang in there!
Shelly
You write very well! I enjoyed reading your post, however sorry to hear how it was a rollercoaster of emotions! I say this...there is always someone who even see's a skinny person as fat! It sounds to me you have done an amazing job and with no fill? That is truely inspirational! Thank you for sharing! I will one day also get into the XL gown!
So...I had three doctor appointments today. A mammogram first, then a visit to the lapband surgeon for a follow up visit, and then the rheumatologist to discuss the knee and hip pain. Great NSVs at the breast imaging center. I fit fine in the narrow seats in the waiting room. Last time, I had to sit on the couch...the chairs were too tight. Then was able to wrap an XL gown around myself with no issues while the last time, I had to put on two 2XL gowns, front to back, back to front, so I could cover up.
Then...off to the surgeon. Lost 23 lbs in two months....59 total since pre-surgical diet. Doctor said I am doing exceptionally well especially as I've not had any fills. Now I'm literally floating on air and heading to my next appointment.
So, I get to the rheumatologist....and that's when I got a big old dose of reality. He put me on methotrexate and told me to take four pills a week even though based on my weight, I should really be on six pills but he wanted to start me off at a lower dose and go up if needed. That kinda burst my bubble. I knew going into this lapband thing, that I needed to lose at least 100 lbs. but I was feeling so good until he brought me back to Earth with that comment that I should be on more meds based on my size.
Not to worry...I'm not letting this get me down, it's just that while we may know in our world, how well we are doing, the rest of the world still sees us as fat. I can't wait to not be fat. I'm not interested in being skinny...I'm just soooo done with being fat.
Not-Quite-Everything you Need to Know about Lap-Bands
Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D.
May 2013
When the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, admitted in May 2013 that he got gastric Lap-Band surgery, many pundits assumed it was because he plans to run for president. But the choice raised questions about the governor’s judgment. Why would he chose a weight loss strategy that has become so unpopular that the major manufacturer of lap bands, Allergan, no longer wants to make them?[1]
Most weight loss strategies don’t work for most people – usually they lose weight and then gain it back, and that can make it harder to lose again. But it is important to keep trying, because obesity can kill people by increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even some kinds of cancer. Lap-Bands help many people lose weight rather dramatically – some lose 50-100 pounds in the first 6 months or year. Unfortunately, Lap-Bands are often not a lasting solution to obesity. For example, an obese woman with high blood pressure will see her blood pressure go down in the first years after surgery, but will increase if she gains weight back after that.
Even more controversial than the use of Lap-Bands to treat life-threatening obesity if the use for people who are not extremely overweight. The American Heart Association advises “bariatric surgery should be reserved for patients who have severe obesity” and only when medical therapy has failed and surgery is a safe option.[2] The FDA came to a different conclusion, and they approved lap-bands for people who are only slightly obese (with a BMI as low as 30) if the person has a serious health problem caused by their weight.
If you’re thinking about getting a Lap-Band, here’s the information that can help you decide.
Q: What is a Lap-Band?
A: A Lap-Band is a silicone band around your stomach that reduces the room for food so that you feel full after eating very small amounts. If you eat too much, especially too much of certain kinds of food, you will feel nauseous or will vomit. That will discourage your from overeating and help you lose weight. It is a less complicated surgery than gastric bypass surgery, but most people with Lap-Bands don’t lose as much weight as patients undergoing gastric bypass. Also, Lap-Bands are reversible, and gastric bypass is not.
Q: Whatever diet I use, I can’t keep my weight off. Will a Lap-Band help me lose weight and keep it off?
A: Most people with Lap-Bands lose weight during the first year. Surprisingly few people continue to lose weight after that, despite the small amounts of food they can comfortably eat. After a year, people who have Lap-Bands usually stabilize at their new weight, or start gaining weight again. Some gain and lose weight just like they did when they were on different diets. Despite how difficult it is to eat solid food, many people don’t lose weight with a Lap-Band. Approximately one-third of the people with Lap-Bands have them removed and not replaced within 1-5 years.
Q: If a Lap-Band makes it impossible to eat a large amount of food, how is it possible that some people don’t lose weight with a Lap-Band?
A: There are fattening foods that people can eat large quantities of even with a Lap-Band, such as ice cream and liquids. If you enjoy ice cream, drink many high-calorie beverages, or eat small meals all day long, it is possible to not lose weight or not lose much weight. In fact, a company that makes Lap-Bands, Allergan, found in their research that some patients actually gained weight!
Q: Can a Lap-Band be dangerous? Can it kill you?
A: All surgery has risks, including Lap-Band surgery. Almost all patients will survive Lap-Band surgery, but the risks increase after surgery. We know that patients have died as a result of Lap-Bands, including some patients who were not so overweight that their obesity would have killed them. We don’t know how often that happens, but it is important for patients and their families to understand that there are serious risks that may be greater than the likely benefits for patients who are not dangerously obese.
One of the risks of Lap-Bands is that weight loss after surgery can increase the risk of sudden death from cardiac arrhythmias.
Research shows that the Lap-Band can deteriorate or causes a perforation in the gastro-intestinal tract, where acids and fecal matter can leak into the abdomen. Researchers at the European School of Laparoscopic Surgery found that more than one-fourth of Lap-Band patients had experienced band deterioration within 12 years.[3] It can take less than 30 minutes of surgery to get a Lap-Band, but patients can end up undergoing emergency surgery and staying in the hospital for days when something goes wrong.
Lap-Bands do not last forever, so even if the patient has a good experience with a Lap-Band, eventually it will wear out and need to be removed (and replaced, if the patient wants it to be). The European School of Laparoscopic Surgery study followed Lap-Band patients for 12 years and found that half had their bands removed within that period of time.[3] Each additional surgery, whether to take a band out or replace it, is an added risk.
Q: Why do people have their Lap-Bands removed?
A: Some people never lose weight from a Lap-Band, so they get the Lap-Band removed a few months after it’s put in. Some have terrible side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, or perforation of the gastro-intestinal tract, mentioned above. In some cases the Lap-Band slips off or starts to deteriorate, requiring surgery, and the patient decides to remove the Lap-Band and not take that risk again. Lap-Bands can deteriorate after just a year or two, or possibly a few years later. These are some of the other reasons why people have their Lap-Bands removed.
Some people just get tired of their Lap-Bands because they don’t like to have such draconian limits on what they can eat. They long to have a sandwich or a small bowl of Pasta, or to eat a regular meal with their family or friends. As long as you’re losing weight, the restrictions may be tolerable for many people, but may not seem worth it if you haven’t lost any weight in months or even years.
Q: What are the health benefits of a Lap-Band?
A: If a person who is overweight has the willpower to eat only the small amounts of food needed to feel full, a Lap-Band can help him or her lose weight and keep it off. How often does that happen? Most people who are obese don’t eat only when they are hungry, they eat for other reasons.
There are no studies to tell us how long the average obese person will keep a Lap-Band, but we know that many patients have their Lap-Bands removed. The latest research shows that two-thirds of very obese people with Lap-Bands needed additional surgery over the next decade and almost half had their Lap-Bands removed because of complications. That doesn’t include people who had their Lap-Bands removed because they were ineffective or because the patients didn’t like them. Would less obese people do any better? On the contrary, it seems logical that a very obese person will be more motivated to keep their Lap-Band because they are more thrilled about losing 60-100 pounds than a slightly obese person will be about losing 30 pounds.
We need better research to find out what the real benefits are. Here’s a good research study that someone should do: find 200 average height women who are 30 pounds overweight at the age of 25 and who want Lap-Bands. Then find 200 of the same height and weight who choose other types of dieting instead. Ten years later, how healthy are the women who had Lap-Bands compared to those that didn’t – and how much do the women weigh in each group?
Q: How much does Lap-Band surgery cost? How much does it cost to remove a Lap-Band?
A: It usually costs between $15,000-$30,000 to put in a Lap-Band. If there are complications, removal will cost at least that much and possibly much more. If you are considering a Lap-Band, find out if your health insurance will pay for the surgery and be sure to find out if it will pay to have the Lap-Band removed. Many insurance companies will only pay for one Lap-Band surgery, so they will pay to put it in, but not to take it out.
Remember that Lap-Bands do not last forever, and we don’t know exactly how long they usually last. Some last just a year or two, and we estimate that most will not last more than 10 years even in the most ideal circumstances.
Q: I’ve seen ads that say a Lap-Band can save your life. Can they say that if it isn’t true?
A: It is possible that a Lap-Band could save a person’s life. That doesn’t mean it can save your life, and it doesn’t mean it will save the lives of most people who get them. It may not even improve the health of most people who get them. Ads by doctors are usually not regulated to ensure “truth in advertising.”
Q: Lap-Bands have been sold in the U.S. for almost 10 years and in other countries for 15 years. Why are there no studies of people who have had Lap-Bands for 10 years?
A: Some people think the companies that make Lap-Bands haven’t done the studies because they are concerned that the results won’t be good for sales. All we can say is that the companies haven’t published any studies, and the companies say that they have not done the studies.
Q: What happens when Lap-Bands deteriorate? Will aging Lap-Bands cause even more serious health problems?
A: A Lap-Band that deteriorates can kill or seriously harm a patient if it is not removed. We don’t know how long most Lap-Bands will last in the human body before they deteriorate and that is why the FDA is requiring Allergan to do studies to answer those questions. However, the FDA says Allergan can sell Lap-Bands to people who are only slightly obese even before those studies are started.
Q: What is the scientific evidence that Lap-Bands are safe and effective?
Allergan, one of the companies that makes Lap-Bands, provided two studies to the FDA. One is a 3-year study of about 178 patients from the ages of 18 to 55, with the original BMI criteria of 35 or higher. Those people were dangerously obese.
The second study has only 149 patients from the new target weight group, who were slightly obese (BMI of at least 30) with weight-related health problems. All the patients were 18 to 55 years old and none had diabetes. They were all studied for only one or two years.
Q: Isn’t 149 people a rather small study? Did the studies include men and women and different racial and ethnic groups?
A. Yes, 149 people is a small study, and the study included only 14 men, 14 African Americans, and 16 Hispanics. There were even fewer Asians and Native Americans. The men had less success with the Lap-Band than women. We need better research to determine whether men don’t do as well when researchers control for confounding variables such as weight and illnesses. We need to study more African Americans and Hispanics to know if it is safe and effective for them.
Q: Why was the new study only one year long?
A: As stated above, one has to wonder if the company was concerned that a longer study would not have favorable results. That still leaves us wondering why the FDA did not require a study that lasted at least 3 years. Obviously, a one- or two-year study is too short-term to determine long-term safety. Implanted devices often work well for a few years, and then
problems arise. Since Lap-Bands have been sold in the U.S. for almost 10 years, the company should have studied them for at least 5-8 years.
Q: Are Lap-Bands especially risky for some people?
A: In the study conducted by Allergan, none of the patients had a personal history or family history of autoimmune. That’s because of concerns that the implant could exacerbate autoimmune problems. For that reason, Lap-Bands should not be approved by the FDA for patients with a personal history or family history of autoimmune disease.
Allergan proposed a “caution“-not a warning-for patients with autoimmune diseases or symptoms, and did NOT mention a family history of those conditions. That is risky, since the company intentionally did not study patients with either a family history or personal history of autoimmune disease because of concerns about the dangers.
We don’t know if the FDA will require a warning for autoimmune patients and those who have family members with autoimmune diseases, but they should. We know that some doctors don’t know that Lap-Bands were not studied in patients with autoimmune disease, and don’t know that the company has cautioned against their use for those patients. As a result, some patients get very ill.
Jessica Resas is one such patient, living in Texas. Jessica had an autoimmune disease and her sister had lupus when Jessica got her Lap-Band. She lost more than 100 pounds, but says she has never felt so sick as she does now. In a letter, she asked, “Please advise me of what I need to do to verify if my issues are due to a reaction to the Lap-Band, and if I remove it will the symptoms disappear? …I don’t want to become debilitated to the point that I can’t work or function. I have a 70-year old mother to look after.”
Jessica’s autoimmune symptoms might be caused by her Lap-Band, or might not be, but we need research to find out for sure. If studying Lap-Bands on people with Jessica’s autoimmune history is too risky, then it is also too risky for doctors to put Lap-Bands in people with that autoimmune history.
Q: Is there any reason to think Lap-Bands are less safe for African American or Hispanic women?
A: African American women and Hispanic women are especially vulnerable to lupus and several other autoimmune diseases. There are also other racial and ethnic differences that could influence safety. Is the Lap-Band safe for them? We can’t answer that question because so few were studied. However, we think the risks are likely to be greater than the benefits for African American and Hispanic women because they are more likely to have autoimmune symptoms or diseases.
Q: Should I get a Lap-Band?
A: Are you addicted to eating? If so, a Lap-Band is probably not going to help you lose weight.
Do you love ice cream or fattening drinks? If so, a Lap-Band is probably not going to be effective in helping you lose weight.
Do you have auto-immune symptoms or family members with an auto-immune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, MS, or scleroderma? If so, the risks of a Lap-Band are higher for you.
Does your insurance cover additional surgery if the Lap-Band doesn’t work out? If it does, are you sure your insurance will be as generous a few years from now, when you are most likely to need additional surgery? If insurance or tight finances might be a problem for you, you should probably not undergo Lap-Band surgery at this time.
Think about all the eating restrictions with a Lap-Band: no more regular size meals. (We don’t mean no more Thanksgiving dinners, we mean no more dinners that are one-third the size of a Thanksgiving dinner). No more Pasta dinners – maybe four noodles will be ok, but not more. Before choosing a life of those types of restrictions, make at least one more serious effort to improve your diet and exercise habits, and see if you can lose weight without surgery. After you have made that effort, if you are still obese, check out what the latest research shows about Lap-Bands and talk to your doctor about your options.
After you read this article, think about how you feel about your life. What risks are you willing to take to lose weight for what might be only a year or two? If you are dangerously obese or extremely unhappy with your weight, the risks might be worth it, but this should not be a quick decision. You might want to wait a year or more until better research has been done, to figure out how effective Lap-Bands are and if some types of gastric bands are safer than others.
http://center4resear...bout-lap-bands/
Thank you for the kind words
They removed over 12 pounds of skin. I actually am getting my drains and staples out today (yay!), but even with all the swelling, I know I've dropped a full size in shirts already. I went into the hospital wearing a snug XL top and today I'm wearing a L top that fits perfectly. My pants literally fall off of me, which is kinda funny. Because of the binder around my middle, I don't feel them slipping down so I don't realize I'm about to moon the room until the crotch of my pants are at my knees and yank them back up LOL! I plan on buying pants over the next couple days but I know I've dropped at least one size if not possibly two.
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